Obama team: Libya is not a 'war'

Instead, Libya is "a time-limited, scope-limited military action, in concert with our international partners, with the objective of protecting civilian life in Libya from Moammar Gadhafi and his forces," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Pressed on the point by reporters, Carney said, "I'm not going to get into the terminology," but Libya is not an "open-ended military action, the kind of which might otherwise be described as a war."

"There's no ground troops, as the president said," Carney said. "There's no land invasion."

Carney made the comparison to NATO-led action in the Balkans during the 1990s.

Like President Obama -- who has been accused of being vague about the reasons behind the military action -- Carney drew a distinction between the United Nations resolution and Obama administration policy with respect to the fate of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

"The military mission that is described in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 specifically deals with using all necessary means to protect civilians in Libya," Carney said. "That is the military mission."

That is separate from Obama's policy that Gadhafi "has lost the legitimacy to lead and that he should step down, that he should remove himself from power," Carney said.

As part of that policy, Carney said, "we have engaged in a number of actions -- unilateral and multilateral -- aimed at putting pressure on Moammar Gadhafi and those around him to convince him or those around him that he should leave power."

This includes sanctions, the freezing of Libyan assets, encouraging defectors and things like that.

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About David Jackson

David's journalism career spans three decades, including coverage of five presidential elections, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 2000 Florida presidential recount and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has covered the White House for USA TODAY since 2005. His interests include history, politics, books, movies and college football -- not necessarily in that order. More about David